91原创

But while there鈥檚 lots to be smug about at corporate head offices, industry leaders seem wilfully blind to the ongoing global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy; from gasoline guzzlers to electric vehicles; from fossil fuel generated electricity to solar and wind power.

Instead they are fixated on what they see as obstacles to their success imposed by the federal government as it tries to reduce carbon emissions, limit global warming and incentivize renewable energy.

So, it was not surprising when a shareholder stood up at Canadian Natural Resources annual meeting last week and complained about the federal government and in particular Steven Guilbeault, minister of environment and climate change, for constantly attacking Alberta and its oil industry.

Murray Edwards, and a billionaire three times over, who resides in St. Moritz, Switzerland, told the shareholder that he has met with federal officials many times and 鈥渢hey are starting to realize how important the oil and gas industry is to the country 鈥� and that this sector has to be successful.鈥�

Starting to realize? Did he mean the feds didn鈥檛 realize that when Justin Trudeau and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley struck a deal in 2018 that saw and pour $35 billion into it so Alberta could export oil to Asia?

Or when the federal government shipped $1.7 billion聽to western provinces that the industry should be paying for; most of those messes were in Alberta and still haven鈥檛 been cleaned up.

Or when the Trudeau government offered significant tax credits (the industry wants even more) for a multibillion dollar carbon capture utilization and storage project聽 but have yet to do much about.

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion finally started shipping oil to the West Coast last week and that will surely benefit Canadian Natural Resources, Edwards told the meeting. He didn鈥檛 mention that it was the Trudeau government that made that possible.

Edwards is also a co-owner of the Calgary Flames, which struck a deal with the city to build a new $1 billion arena that will see city taxpayers cough up most of the money. That might be the model the oil industry is hoping to rely on when cleaning up toxic tailings ponds and abandoned oil wells becomes too expensive for them.

Of course, the oil barons couldn鈥檛 ask for a better promoter than Alberta premier Danielle Smith. She sees an ever increasing and never ending supply of oil sloshing out of Alberta that will somehow also be carbon free. Who needs renewable energy when you have oil? The word delusional doesn鈥檛 even begin to cover it.

Oil production isn鈥檛 going to be shut down overnight even though carbon emissions from the fossil fuel industry are causing the planet to rapidly heat up. We will need gasoline, diesel fuel and plastics for some years yet.

But how much and at what price? Albertans and other Canadians have grown used to the jobs, wealth and government revenue provided by the oil and gas industry. But what will happen when demand drops, prices soften and that sector of our economy isn鈥檛 as key as it used to be?

That鈥檚 the scenario 91原创鈥檚 oil industry and Alberta鈥檚 premier refuse to plan for. But no matter what happens, the oil barons will walk away with millions of dollars while the rest of us will have to pay for their sins.